May 2008

May 26, 2008

As I lie in bed relaxing this evening, I want to say thank you to all the service men and women and their families who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that I may have my freedom. I am grateful to each and every one of you.

That being said, it has been a very busy weekend around the Granger house. I have been finishing up the SOY entry and the revamping of my scrap room, Chuck did yardwork and went golfing and the girls just played. We shopped today and came home with a brand new television. We have been needing one for 22 months, and have been saving and waiting and today was the day we made the big purchase and it is beautiful. I am returning to work tomorrow here in Orlando and leaving on Thursday heading to Buffalo for the CK show and I am hoping to see some old friends and make new ones. I am also hoping to use my passport for the first time too.

Tomorrow look for photos of the new scrap room and the beautiful yellow bicycle walls!

May 24, 2008

Looking forward to a wonderful three day weekend of chores and relaxation. Unfortunately, the chores need to be done since we were on vacation last week. Once the chores are done however, there may be some beach time in my future!

I decided to give away two prizes for comments about classes and conventions. I have a very scientific way of choosing them too. Two winners, two daughters, each one picks a number between 1 and 69 and voila, we have winners. Rhyan picked 37 and Chase chose 52. And the winners are:

I love so much about conventions and the classes, its hard to choose. i like getting away. I Love to create. I love the people I meet. Going out to dinner. Shopping. New products. But I think my very Favorite thing is LEARNING. I have always loved to learn and enjoyed school more than anyone i know, but to combine learning and creating---OH WHAT HEAVEN!!!!

May 19, 2008

Sorry that I have been a bad blogger, but life has been very busy...I was in Novi Michigan last weekend and I was not feeling too great when I returned. I was home for just three days and then all of us (the whole family) left for a mini vacation in New Hampshire. I worked at the CKC in Manchester for the first few days while the husband and kids went up to Laconia to spend time with their Nana and Grandpa. Friday Chuck and the girls came down and we went out to dinner with my best friend in the whole work, Shelby and her kids and we had a great time. We went to Friday's and they sang to Rhyan and it was too cute..

Saturday, Chase stayed in Manchester and spent the day with me in the classroom helping out, and she even took one of the classes. I was really excited to have her stay with me and see what I do. She was a big help in setting up the room, she went to the booth and helped bag purchases for a little while and then came back to the room to help me out some more. I think she had a great time, and it was good for her to see how much work it can be at times. Chuck and Rhyan came down to pick us up and we headed up to Laconia where we will be until tomorrow afternoon..We had a bbq yesterday for the girls and some old friends came by to see Chuck. It was great to see everybody and spend some quality time with extended family. Of course I have taken a lot of photos, but since I am blogging from a guest computer, I have no way to upload them right now and will do so once we get home.

The convention was a blast, one of my favorite things about my job is returning to places I have taught before and see faces from years past. Here in New Hampshire, there were a lot of familiar faces and for that I am thankful. I also enjoy meeting new people too and seeing how everyone receives the same kit and makes it their own in some manner. This weekend I ran into some of my favorite people including Angela and her farmhands from The Button Farm. They are teaching at a few of the CKC and the class is FABULOUS! She sells great premade kits in her booth and they come with everything needed and then some. Great instruction too, and can I just say, they are the nicest people EVER! I am very excited to see them again in a few weeks at CKC Buffalo.

How about a give away? Leave a comment telling me what your favorite thing is about attending conventions or taking classes and on Friday, May 23rd, I will Draw two winners who will receive a Mega Pack of Paper from Quick Quotes. The mega pack includes several papers, vellum and diecuts. Enough to create many projects with!

May 12, 2008

I got home Saturday evening after a great time in Novi meeting new friends and seeing old ones....I had a great time, it's a great show with great promoters and great attendees. Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! I had a great day, Chase gave me a beautiful bracelet, Rhyan made a beautiful frame and card (which asked me to buy her a gift!) and we spent the afternoon at Islands of Adventure. We were totally spontaneous and bought annual passes to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure and hope to spend lots of time there over the next year. We are leaving for NH on Wednesday and we will be going to a minor league baseball game while we are there...I am very excited about it too, we are all going, even Nana and Grandpa. Chuck is looking forward to going to see his old high school baseball coach in action and take in a few Laconia High School games while we are in town. I am hoping to bring some scrapping stuff with me and get some scrapping done with my mother in-law. The kids, they are just excited to get out of school. I am just about done with my SOY entry, yep that's right I am going for it so wish me luck!

May 07, 2008

waiting to go to Novi, Michigan for the Mega Meet where I will be teaching a whopping 20 classes in three days. That's a lot of Classes. I am looking forward to seeing Stacy Julian who is the keynote speaker tonight and seeing my traveling scrapping pals. Things have been crazy at the Granger house as of late. We Celebrated Chase's Birthday on May 1st, had a sleepover with 9 twelve year old girls, spent the weekend with Grandmama and papa taking family photos and just being together. I even managed to squeeze in some scrapping for a challenge at Scrapbook Obsessions. Here they are (they happen to include some photos from our photo shoot this weekend)

and the second one

I don't have much time to scrap these days, and when I do have time, my room is such a mess that I find myself wanting to clean and organize ratther than scrap. I am hoping one day soon, to completely gut the room and start from scratch. The sleep over was perfect, well as perfect as a sleepover with 12 REALLY LOUD girls can be. I have to say, they are a great group of girls and they all get along so well, I thought that there would be some fighting, and separating into smaller groups, but there was none of that going on. It really made me think about my childhood and sleepovers that I went to as a girl. Things have definitely changed that is for sure. All of the girls had their own camera, and they each had their own cell phone, that is all of them except Chase. We haven't gotten her one just yet, and my no cell resolve was weakened just a bit by the presence of all those cell phones. Our photo shoot was fun. We went to a park in the middle of the city, Langford Park. The park is amazing and there is a large tree whose branch has grown close to the ground allowing easy access and making a great backdrop for photos. Thank you to my dear friend Maddy who went with us, used my camera and took about 200 photos for us. I am lucky to have you as a friend. The rest of the weekend was spent with my family just being together. We had everyone over for dinner and just relaxed. Sunday I went and saw the new Patrick Dempsey movie, "Maid of Honor". It was okay, pretty predictable but enjoyable. The rest of the day was spent at home relaxing and scrapping. So, American Idol last night, I have to admit, a little dissappointing. It was okay, I am still loving David Cook, but overall it was a pretty boring show. I am hoping that Jason Castro is the one to leave, as I believe he should have been gone weeks ago. I have to admit though, I don't vote every week. Just once in a while.

Next week we have a show in Manchester NH and I am pretty excited about that because my whole family is going since that is where Chuck and I are from. I will be working in Manchester and Chuck will be with the girls in Laconia. I also get to see my best friend in the entire world and her family which is a great bonus. We will be in NH for a week and will celebrate Rhyan's 7th birthday while we are there. May is always such a busy month!

I am still gathering some goodies for a big give away later this month that you won't want to miss!